“Our mission with Ben Mills [division general manager] and Will Scott [division plant planner] was to develop a 1958 Lincoln. Then, in that era, bigger is better, longer is better, wider is better, shock the […]
“He liked the cleanliness of the idea. He liked the aerodynaÂmics of the idea, and in his mind they were genuinely aerodynamic. Later on, Chrysler proved that in wind tunnel tests. They ran cross-wind tests […]
(EXPANDED FROM 11/13/2020) Thomas E. Bonsall wrote one of the better Studebaker histories, but it suffers from flaws that undercut the book’s usefulness. More Than They Promised, which was published in 2000, is a refreshing […]
Geeber’s comment on our antitrust story significantly adds to the discussion so I’m elevating it to the front page as a letter to the editor: GM had been pushing to centralize more functions at the […]
“It’s enormous. The (original] Mini was the best-packaged car of all time(; the BMW Mini) is an example of how not to do it. The interior space is not much bigger than the old Mini, […]
Geeber recently wrote one of the best overviews I have ever seen about why Chrysler’s dealer networks became so dysfunctional. His comment (below) was in response to, “Lynn Townsend failed to solve Chrysler’s warfare between […]
(UPDATED FROM 6/26/2020) The Saab 99/900 proved to be the box that crushed the tiny Swedish carmaker. I grant you that this platform was hardly an immediate failure. Even so, the design of the 99 […]
(UPDATED FROM 5/1/2020) American automakers have always had a penchant for extravagant designs that can look overwrought compared to imports. Of course, this has been changing of late as foreign automakers — particularly the Japanese […]
(EXPANDED 10/24/2022) “Lower, longer, wider” was the domestic automakers’ dominant design approach until they were forced to downsize their fleet in the late-1970s due to federal fuel-economy standards. Since that time automakers have at least […]
(EXPANDED FROM 5/22/2015) The 1959 Studebaker Lark’s design was initially so successful that it was described by historian Robert Ebert as a “miracle” (2013, p. 55). Studebaker-Packard Corporation, which was on the verge of liquidating […]
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